Liberation Day detente with N.K. unlikely

The two Koreas have so far failed to arrange any joint events to mark the 70th anniversary this Saturday of their liberation from Japan’s colonial rule, as cross-border relations further worsened due to a series of setbacks including last week’s land mine incident.

Seoul officials said that due to Pyongyang’s “half-heartedness and stubborn attitude,” it would be unlikely for the civic groups from the two Koreas to jointly hold any of the commemorative events this Saturday in either Seoul or Pyongyang.

But they said the Seoul government and civic groups would hold planned events on their own, south of the heavily fortified border. The events include an art exhibition, a chorus performance, a peace-themed concert and a program in which overseas Koreans can learn about unification issues.

“We will not be able to hold any joint events on Liberation Day itself as the North has been passive in making progress in the discussions to arrange the events, even as we’ve tried hard to forge conditions to enhance bilateral relations,” a senior official at Seoul’s Unification Ministry told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Late last month, the North rejected the South’s call for dialogue to discuss the holding of the joint Aug. 15 events, while unilaterally demanding that South Korean civic groups join Pyongyang’s separate events.

South Korean civic groups have been pushing to hold with North Korean partners a soccer match, a youth walkathon, joint prayer services, joint heritage exhibitions and academic forums on Korean liberation movements. But these events have been shelved with the North refusing to further discuss them.

The North has also continued to spurn Seoul’s overtures for talks including the latest one last Wednesday, while demanding that Seoul scrap its plan to hold the forthcoming joint military drills with the U.S. and remove the so-called May 24 economic sanctions, which were put in place after the North killed 46 South Korean sailors in a torpedo attack in March 2010.

Analysts said that after all, both sides were to blame for the failure to arrange joint events given that both lacked political will to push for the events.

“Stuck in a war of nerves, both lacked the true will to push ahead with those events, particularly when there has been a deep distrust between them,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told The Korea Herald.

“Unless the highest political leaders in both nations take special steps, it would be difficult to restore cross-border relations.”

Despite the Seoul government’s “trustpolitik” approach toward Pyongyang, inter-Korean distrust has been deepening with peninsular security uncertainties growing.

The Park Geun-hye government has continued to focus on applying pressure on the communist regime to renounce its nuclear ambitions and stop provocations, while its efforts for cross-border dialogue have been dismissed by the North as insincere.

North Korea leader Kim Jong-un’s seemingly clumsy, unpredictable diplomacy has exacerbated inter-Korean tensions.

His diplomatic ineptitude was highlighted as Pyongyang rejected the request by Lee Hee-ho, the widow of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, to meet with him during her visit to Pyongyang last week, and abruptly canceled U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s planned visit to the North in May.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)